I still find it amusing when people think a thousand years ago is ancient........
If someone could tell me about old Roman cussing, I'd be just as interested.
I guess it depends on what you consider "ancient". I still find it kind of weird and amusing when people call "anachronism!" on words that are simply older than they think they are.
Well, "fuck" can be traced back to the late 1400s at least as existing and having the same definition (sexual intercourse). The question is, when did it start being used as profanity in our current grammatical fashion, or even as a bad word? For example, people can say, "this Fing chair" when furious at a chair, despite the fact it doesn't really make logical sense (similar to saying "F you" to someone you dislike), because of the odd way our language and society develops.
The word gained notoriety at least as early as the 1700s in a book which listed low and vulgar words. Of course, that's not to say it was used the same way it is now.
Why would you doubt there'd be much on the subject? I can think of few etymological-type subjects there's likely more on.
Could you clarify what you're looking for though? There's a difference, to me, between 'being crude' and swearing, in general.
Mostly, because old records aren't likely to have examples of crude conversation, and many accounts get destroyed or lost depending on the place and time (if they even keep accounts).
Basically what I want, is to know how people of old would speak when being crude and insulting to one and other. In some languages, you get called a son of an owl.
All our current curse words have Anglo-Saxon / Old English derivations, so c. 700-c.1100.
But with one possible exception, fuck, they weren't curse words; they were the words the language had for basic meanings.
Curse, by the way, means something very different from swear, and neither are necessarily obscene.
You'll notice things like ods bodkins, b'are lady, etc. from about 1450 on to about 1700 or so. You'll see them in Shakespeare.
There's an Old Irish oath from c. 700 that translates "I swear by the gods my people swear by."
Mm, that's where it gets tricky. Some words which are considered dirty now were clean back then, and vice versa.
I'm sorry to cause confusion by using the word "swear". I am referring specifically to bad language, cursing, profanity, and crudity.
A friend of mine recommended Shakespeare also. Been a while since I saw any of the plays. Any suggestions for which one is a good example?
